Suspects in USC grad student death plead not guilty to murder charges

Two adults and two teenagers pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder charges stemming from the fatal beating of a USC graduate student from China as he was walking back to his apartment near the campus.

Jonathan Del Carmen, 19, and Andrew Garcia, 18, are charged along with Alberto Ochoa, 17, and Alejandra Guerrero, 16, in the attack on Xinran Ji, 24, that occurred around 12:45 a.m. July 24 near 29th Street and Orchard Avenue. They are all jailed without bail.

The four are due back in court Sept. 12, when a date will be set for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence for them to stand trial.

The criminal complaint includes the special-circumstance allegation, as the murder occurred in an attempted robbery. Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Del Carmen and Garcia. Ochoa and Guerrero, who were charged as adults, cannot face the death penalty because they are under 18.

The criminal complaint alleges that Garcia, Ochoa and Guerrero used deadly weapons — a bat and a wrench — in the crime.

The electrical engineering graduate student, who was on his way home after a study group, managed to make it back to his City Park apartment in the 1200 block of West 30th Street, where he was found dead about 7 a.m. July 24. A trail of blood marked the path he walked.

Garcia, Ochoa and Guerrero are also charged with one count each of robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon for an alleged attack on a man and woman at Dockweiler Beach later that day.

The group allegedly robbed the woman, but the man managed to escape and flag down police, according to Deputy District Attorney John McKinney.